Insight
Ramadan is a reflective religious period among Muslim Malays, the biggest group in multiracial Malaysia. Such period reaches its climax for Raya, whereby families gather in a grateful celebration. They observe a month of fasting from dawn until sunset. While fasting, Malays carry out their daily routine but focus on the chance to breaking fast at sunset.
It’s also a period of mass advertising. Ramadan is the biggest sales month of the year as Malays stock up on food and presents for the family. Although food and beverage companies refrain from advertising during the fasting period, they aggressively resume with advertisements flooding the media when Malays are about to break fast. Within the clutter of all of this advertising, the Aircare category is forgotten.
Mediacom identified a key insight that created a role for Ambi Pur in this important ritual:
The breaking fast meal is a spectacular event. Special dishes, unusual spices and rich food such as Rendang and Belachan fill the house during cooking. Although they can’t taste the food while cooking, the strong scent indicates that the food is cooked according to their liking. Yet these smells tend to linger in the air and on fabric but need to be cleared before fasting resumes again.
Ambi Pur’s scent needed to be relevant during the busy preparation for Ramadan and Raya when families focused their energies to break fast with their friends and loved ones once again.
Strategy
Mediacom’s insight was that Modern Malays now looked to media to tell them when the moment to break fast had arrived. Traditionally, this moment was marked by an announcement coming from a mosque or other means to signal prayer and eating.
Mediacom's research showed that Malays are glued to TV for at least an hour before the moment to eat arrives. This insight created a critical but limited opportunity for Ambi Pur because once buka puasa has arrived, their attention switches to eating and bonding.
In particular they identified Jom Berbuka (Let’s Break Fast) as an unheralded ratings hotspot. Jom Berbuka featured famous Muslim Malay celebrities breaking fast. Alongside this media insight, it also focused on the traditional Raya behaviour of purchasing collectibles such as cookie jars that are used to serve visitors during open houses when family and friends come by to enjoy the feast.
The strategy would place the benefits of Ambi Pur in front of a mass audience. It would put entertainment at the heart of the message to appeal to their family audience. Above all the central message would be that keeping their homes fresh and clean after cooking all these savory yet overwhelming dishes is easy with Ambi Pur.
Execution
Ambi Pur became part of the breaking fast entertainment, a moment their target anticipated during the day.
Ambi Pur already had a recognised brand asset in Malaysia, their stackable (Mamat family) tins which can be purchased in stores along with Ambi Pur. There was an opportunity for them to capitalise on this already existing consumer connection to Ambi Pur and family. They turned these tins into a cartoon family and put them and Ambi Pur right at the heart of the Jom Berbuka show.
The Mamat family featured Pak Mamat (dad), Mak Siti (mom), Kak Ani (daughter) & Dik Atan (son) and their adventures, each episode ending with an important and Ramandan relevant message.
To grab the audience’s attention quickly, The Mamat family would kick off each episode of Jom Berbuka by reminding everyone that it’s time to watch the show. In between commercial breaks, at the time when our audience may ‘switch off’ the animated characters would perform household chores such as spraying the air with Ambi Pur.
Finally at the end of the show, the Mamat family would reflect on what they learned from the episode such as how children should help their parents in doing chores.
To take the message beyond Jom Berbuka, Mediacom also created 30-second capsules with the Mamat family giving more tips for Ramadan and Raya, including the tedious balik kampung journey when families drive back to their hometown. They tapped bloggers to distribute this content aside from airing them on TV.
Results
Ambi Pur was the scent of Ramadan and Raya. Sales sky-rocketed with nearly one million additional Ambi Pur products sold during the campaign. Sales were up 27% month on month, beating their target by 16%.
Integrating the Mamat family with Jom Berbuka generated a massive return on investment of 1: 5.6 or approximately $300,000. The characters appealed to the whole family and became part of the highest rated show on prime time during Ramadan season. The TV message alone delivered a 74.1% reach despite the on-air clutter.
Online it delivered 55 million impressions with a click through rate via social media - 34-times better than market norms.
Blogger outreach delivered more than one million visits and on Facebook attracted 8,000 likes of the Mamat family videos that generated organic shares and interaction on the Ambi Pur Malaysia Facebook page.